Happy New Year from HerKentucky!

2013 was a huge year for the HerKentucky team.

Our writers were everywhere.  Megan's dream of writing fiction became a fantastic reality. Shannon's fiction was featured in not one, but two literary magazines. Two of Sarah's essays -- about gender disappointment and rising tuition costs -- were featured on the Huffington Post. Emily's inspiring story of body image and weight struggles was featured in Ladies' Home Journal. Erin's essay was featured in the anthology This I Believe: Kentucky.

We had a lot going on personally as well. Glenda was a fierce warrior for her daughter's health. Erin and her family moved to a new church and a new part of the country. I moved to Louisville and realized that everything isn't quite where I left it. Liz said goodbye to her beloved NYC as Dr. Hotpants took the next steps in his surgical career. Sarah and her husband renewed their wedding vows on their 10th wedding anniversary.

As we reflect on all the changes of the past year, we're excited to share new stories with HerKentucky's readers in 2014. We look forward to telling you of our newest goals and dreams. We want to share the stories of Kentucky women who have followed their dreams both professionally and personally. We're excited to spend another year bringing you the best of Kentucky life.

Happy 2014 from HerKentucky!

What are your goals for the New Year?

A Dream Come True

As many of you know from my very first post here on Her Kentucky, I've been working on a young adult novel, BETWEEN, for about two years. I wrote it, then re-wrote it, re-wrote it, and re-wrote it again. I'm talking major, beginning-to-end rewrites, not including all the minor revisions I made on those drafts along the way.

Many times, usually about halfway through a rewrite when I realized I had written myself into a corner and couldn't find a way to make my plot work, I thought about giving up on it. 

I'm glad I didn't.

I decided pretty early in life that I was going to write books. I gave up on that dream several times as I got older. Writing was always something I enjoyed, but I quit looking at it as something I would seriously pursue. I didn't even really understand how a person got a book published, and when I started looking into it, the whole process seemed so big and terrifying that it just felt too far out of reach for a girl from a tiny town in Kentucky with no publishing connections and no idea of where to start.

One day, I'm going to sit down with my daughters and tell them that. I'm going to explain how I almost let my silly fear of the unknown keep me from doing the one thing I'd known I wanted to do since I was old enough to make up stories. Some dreams might actually be a bit out of reach. (For instance, my goal of marrying Prince Harry is probably not going to happen and might even be slightly creepy at this point. And also I married a pretty stellar fella already.) But other dreams only seem out of reach because you're told that they're impractical, or that they're the kinds of dreams only certain people get to have. 

I'm so thankful that I have the kind of family who never said, "This is ridiculous. Grow up." 

This morning, I gave my six-year-old a really long, thought-out speech about how I had wanted to be an author ever since I was a little girl and it's important to never give up on what you want in life. She looked at me very seriously and said, "Mommy, my dream is to make toys and houses for all my Little Pet Shop animals."

I nodded, hugged her, and told her to go after it.

No matter what, I want her to know she can be whatever she wants to be. Even a Littlest Pet Shop toy and house designer.